January News!

            Lee and Dana Trotter

      Prescott Community Outreach

                January 2019

Happy New Year! We had a good break over the holidays; hanging out with our family, working on cars and some house projects, and recovering from the stomach flu. Now we are back at hanging out with neighborhood kids and making plans for the spring.

Dana and I have been involved with the church's monthly food basket give away. Starting next month, we are taking over the lead of this program. Last month, we had over 50 people come to receive food baskets for their families, so we are excited to take this over and make some changes to accommodate the growing need in our community.

First, we are moving the food basket area to be a part of La Paz House. This will give us more room, be on the ground level, integrate with our current La Paz outreach, and help us get ready for the church kitchen re-modeling project. 

Second, once we get this up and running, we will be moving the food basket day to Saturday. This will require us to recruit and schedule volunteers better. If you are interested in helping, let us know.

Third, after this transition, we will need more donation partners, program funders, and any other ideas for expansion to this ministry.

Here is what has to happen:

    -Clean out upstairs room and move bike shop upstairs. 

    -Sorting some supplies, bicycles and parts.

    -Install a new door, cabinets, and build shelving and paint the new room.

    -Move a freezer and clean out current food basket pantry.

    -Add some signs, refrigerators, and ???

This is a fairly big project and we want to get it done by Feb 14. We are scheduling workdays and volunteers to make this happen. We hope to be able to expand this ministry to our community, get more people involved, and add health training and ministry components after we get things up and running.

Thank you for your support and prayers. Thank you for trusting us to try to make a difference and share the love of Jesus with our neighbors. We are excited for what this year could bring!

            We love you,

         Lee & Dana

Support gifts and donations should be made out to “National Christian Foundation” and are fully tax deductible. We receive 99% of the funds you donate.   Please designate “Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502” on the memo line. Use the enclosed envelope or send to:

 Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502 c/o National Christian Foundation, 11625 Rainwater Drive, Suite 500,  Alpharetta, GA 30009

Kicking off the new year!

Lee and Dana Trotter
Prescott Community Outreach
January 2018

We made it through another year! There really wasn't much doubt, but looking back over 2017, there
were a lot of challenges and successes. There were a lot of events, conversations, opportunities to help and love our neighbors, and times with our family that we are thankful for.

As we look to 2018, I'm trying to do the usual things like eat better, exercise, lose weight, etc. We are also thinking, scheming, and praying about ways to increase our outreach and minister to our neighborhood more effectively. We have tried a lot of things to do this in the past, some failed and others are becoming staples in our communities.

Some of the things we are working on this year are:
  -Continuing La Paz House and increasing our outreach to youth.
  -Working to better host and engage mission teams that visit our community.
  -Increase our bicycle ministry and outreach.
  -Expand our summer ministry programming.
  -Continue planning and working towards developing a not-for-profit 
        community development effort.
  -Develop a movie and discussion outreach program to target young adults.
  -Try to better direct neighbors from our events and outreaches to church.

Personally, we hope to paint our house, finally remodel our bathroom that wasn't included
when we rehabbed the house 7 years ago, and deal with the piles of bike parts in my back yard.
I figure that should keep us fairly busy for this year and maybe more.

Thank you for your love and support to us and our ministry. We couldn't do it without you. We just learned that one of our supporting churches is decreasing their support to us quite a bit which may effect our day
to day lives and outreach. Please pray that God will provide like He hasfor so many years!
     We love you!
     Happy New Year!

October 2017 Newsletter

 Lee and Dana Trotter 
Prescott Community Outreach 
October 2017 

We just returned from attending the Christian Community Development Conference inspired and ready to love our neighbors more than ever! I returned to a long to do list of getting ready for a work day to replace some flooring at the church, a clothing give-away, and a Harvest Fest trunk or treat event.

 La Paz House is going well. The atmosphere has changed a little. When we opened up for the fall, we started with some behavior issues. I planned a parents meeting to deal with it. We told the kids that they were not allowed to come back to La Paz House unless their parent came to the meeting and signed a behavior contract. We figure this will help us develop relationship with more of the parents and help the kids be accountable for the way they act. The only problem was that with all my efforts to send notes home with the kids, put a letter in their mailbox, and text most of them, only one parent showed up to the meeting. I was disappointed, but not too surprised. Getting anything going or organized has been much harder in urban areas than when we were ministering in the suburbs. On to Plan B. The next day, when La Paz House was to open, I left the door locked and sat in front to meet the kids and tell them they could not attend until I personally met with their parent. Half a dozen moms came walking up the road with their youth to talk to me and fill out the permission form. A few of my worst behaving kids have not been back, which is a little disappointing, but in the long run probably best for La Paz House.

 The atmosphere has changed to a hang out with mostly junior high and high school boy. Things are calmer. We work on bikes and skateboards. We have good and much deeper conversations about just about everything. We get the chance to encourage and challenge the boys to e better. With the pressures on urban boys to get into trouble, we are blessed to be able to hang out everyday with them. Thank you for your support! We are seeing God slowly change our neighborhood! 

 We love you, Lee & Dana 

September 2017 Newsletter

 September 2017

 I have often told you about our doorbell. It rings often with neighborhood kids needing their bikes fixed. We spend time patching tires, adjusting brakes, and replacing broken or bent parts. Dana usually has a Popsicle or cold water for them as we hang out and talk. I get about 2 visits per day; some days more. Those are the easy visits. I get a lot of other visits from neighbors on a fairly regular visit. They always want or need something. Some are looking for work. Some are asking for a “loan”, although I've never gotten paid back. My policy is if you don't pay me back, I consider it a onetime gift and they will not get any more. Some need me to fix something on their car or at their house. Some of them need a ride to work, hospital, sister's house or where ever. I usually am able to drop what I'm doing and help them. 

One man Billy, showed up at church one morning. He was still high on meth. After church I drove him around to find him some help. After talking with him, I learned he was on parole, couldn't leave the county, could not be out on street, and could not stay in any of the shelters because he is a registered sex offender. I helped him that day, the next day got him into the hospital, and then got him into a rehab program in Salina. I bought him a bus ticket and sent him to Salina. He showed up a month later after not finishing the treatment program. I again helped him get food and clothes. He had a place to stay and was doing all right. A number of months went by after he ended up back in jail and won a few dollars at the casino and spent it on drugs. He was in trouble with parole and had nowhere to turn. He showed up on my front porch again. But this time he was different. He was clean and talked clearly. We had a long talk about putting his faith in God, is his responsibility in getting better, and how to get clean and rebuild his life. I spent the day getting him a new state id, some food and toiletries, getting a tv going where he was staying and getting him into a drug treatment program. By now, I was not sure that he would follow up or give up again but I have a hard time giving up on people. Pray for Billy. 

I have not seen him and am not sure where he is or if he is following up on his new faith in God. Thank you for praying for us and supporting our ministry here. It is often frustrating and hard to measure if we are making a difference, but I believe we are! We appreciate you all! 

 We love you, Lee & Dana 

August News

April 2017 Newsletter

        Lee and Dana Trotter

   Prescott Community Outreach

              April 2017

While we are busy trying to get ready for Easter and filing our taxes, life is pretty steady for the neighborhood youth.  I thought I’d take a moment and introduce you to some of my regular La Paz House kids.

Chuckie is a fairly good kid who lives with his mom.  He is 15 and learning to be responsible and is pretty good at helping repair bicycles. Nay Nay and Denisha live down the block.  Their parents are working 4 jobs to provide for their family.  They both struggle with their egos and get into arguments and sometimes fights.  Christopher and Amaris live across from the church with their dad and grandmother.  They recently have been enrolled in a Christian school, but struggle between Christian living and the way city kids act and talk.  Christopher quits swearing about once a week.  We have a lot of talks about God.  Michael gets off the bus at his dad’s house and walks up to La Paz House.  He often gets left without a way home to his mom’s house who recently moved several miles away.  Adrian just recently moved back into the neighborhood.  He lost his dad several years ago.  His mom recently got out of jail.  Through this and his ADHD, he has made a lot of improvements in his behavior, which he is proud of and I look for opportunities to encourage him.  Luis and Gilberto are brothers and seem to be able to do whatever they want.  They struggle in school but don’t seem to care much.  We try to get them to care about their future.  Miranda comes up to La Paz House to get away from here house.  She struggles with her mom and her mom’s new boyfriend.  She is trying to get back into school after trying to (unsuccessfully) home school herself.

Thank you for helping us make a difference in these kids lives.  We are blessed to be in a position to love theses kids.  Feel free to pray for our La Paz House kids!

          We love you all!

Important Note:

The address to NCF has changed.  Some of you may have had gifts returned to you.

Please re-submit them at this new address.

Thank You!

Support gifts and donations should be made out to “National Christian Foundation” and are fully tax deductible. We receive 99% of the funds you donate. Please designate “Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502” on the memo line. Use the enclosed envelope or send to:

 Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502

 c/o National Christian Foundation ,

7171 W 95 Street  Suite 501

Overland Park, KS 66212

Gifts can be made online at: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000OCJD6EAP

Merry Christmas! :December 2016 Newsletter

         Lee and Dana Trotter

          Prescott Community     

                Outreach

             December 2016

Have a blessed Christmas!

Since we have been here in the Prescott neighborhood, we started a new yearly tradition.  We look forward to the Thanksgiving Community Event.  Every year, I cook 4 turkeys and have neighbors, friends, and the people of our church bring the rest.  This year, we decided that we would combine our Thanksgiving meal with a “Welcome Table” worship service.  We removed a number of pews at the front of the sanctuary to make room for tables.  We ended up with over 60 people attending.  We had a small worship and prayer service.  Then we ate (a lot) and finished with prayer and communion.  We were pleased to be able to take our Thanksgiving meal to the next level of including the spiritual life of our community and neighborhood in our celebration!

Now we head into the Christmas season, cold weather, and all of the end of the year stuff.  Overall we had a great year ministering here in our community.  We had countless opportunities to love, help, and counsel our neighbors and youth.  We had our share of struggles too, but we are looking forward to getting ready for next year.

One thing is certain.  We are blessed to be able to serve God in this neighborhood and community.  We are blessed by a great support team that God uses to meet our needs.  We appreciate each one of you and thank God often for you and your love for us and our outreach.  We are looking forward to what God has planned for 2017.

Thank you for your support this year! 

We pray that you have an awesome Christmas!  We love you much!     

   

       Lee & Dana

-----------------------------

Support gifts and donations should be made out to “National Christian Foundation” and are fully tax deductible. We receive 99% of the funds you donate. Please designate “Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502” on the memo line. Use the enclosed envelope or send to:

 Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502

 c/o National Christian Foundation ,706 North Lindenwood Drive, Olathe, KS 66062

Gifts can be made online at: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000OCJD6EAP

Beyond Belief documentary

Check out this KCPT show "Beyond Belief" that highlights our church, communiy, and ministry.  The whole program is great but if you only have a few minutes, start at minute 10:00.  After watching this, you should visit and consider being a part of this wonderful community.

June 2016

Jan 2016 Newsletter

    

  Happy New Year!       - Jan 2016

We had a good break over Christmas.  We had a great Christmas Party with the La Paz kids.  Dana couldn’t be there as she has been recovering from Bronchitis. We made cookies for some of our neghbors and families we work with.  We had a great Christmas with our family. 

Over the break, we moved into our spare bedroom and the plan was to finally fix up our bedroom.  This has come to a complete halt after our sewer line completely clogged starting Christmas Day.  It took a week to get a plumber out to try to clear it and now we are waiting for the weather to clear up so he can dig it up.  Ah, the joys of owning a 90 year old house!   In the meantime, we are living in, “Let’s pretend we are still in rural Mexico” mode.

The good news is that La Paz House is going well with a lot of kids there everyday.  One 11 year old named Daniel said, “This church is the best thing that has ever happened to me!”  Later he was asking me a lot of questions about church. Yes!

We recently won a grant to make some improvements at La Paz House, help with utilities, send some youth to a youth conference this summer, and pay at least one assistant to work with the kids!  This is going to be a big help to Dana and me.  Often, I am there working with 15 kids by myself.

Another thing we are working on is hosting a group of young adults to start talking about how we can better reach out and meet the needs of people their age in our area.

Thank you for your prayers and support as we move forward to make a difference in our neighborhood and share God’s love!

                                                            We Love You!

                                                            Lee & Dana

                                                                       

December Newsletter 2015

     

One important part of our ministry to our neighborhood is working with the local church.  There are not many churches left in our area.  We love working with Grandview Park Church.  Here is a note from Pastor Rick:

It is hard to believe that 2015 is almost over.  We had a great year of ministry here in urban KCK.  Some of our efforts were successful; some were not; and others are still in process. 

We are so blessed to have your love, support, and prayers on our side.

Thank you for believing in us and our outreach.  We believe our investment into our neighbors and neighborhood does make a difference to improve others lives and draw them to Jesus.

We hope and pray that God meets with you this holiday season.  Merry Christmas!

 

     

 La Paz de Dios,

 Lee & Dana 

October Newsletter

  

   Lee and Dana Trotter

    Prescott Community Outreach

     leeinkck@gmail.com

                   October 2015   

  

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Iowa group enjoying a visit from Dr. John Perkins!

La Paz House attendence has almost doubled.  The neighborhood kids like having a place to hang out.  They always ask me why I’m not open on Saturdays or Sundays.  Some think I should stay open until 9:00 every night.   We love the kids, but I would definitely go crazy if that was the case!  As it is, we are definitly looking for the right volunteers to help in the afternoons.  Please pray about this.  This week I had 17 kids to watch by myself ranging from pre-school up to high school.

Andy giving rides on his homemade trailer!

This month has been quite busy.  We had a group of kids and adults ride their bikes in the Central Avenue Parade.  We hosted a group from Iowa who did a clothing give away and church work day to do some  much needed painting, yard work, and repairs at La Paz House and the church.  It is a blessing to have groups that are invested in our mission to love this neighborhood and share Jesus!

Still crazy after all these years!

You are a blessing to us.  We could not do what we do without you!  Your prayer and support is vital to our ministry to the youth and families in our neighborhood! 

Thank You! 

       La Paz de Dios,

       Lee & Dana

September Newsletter

   Lee and Dana Trotter

    Prescott Community Outreach

     leeinkck@gmail.com

     September 2015     

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The kids are all back in school and our daily routine is back to hanging out with the kids at La Paz House every afternoon.  We have a lot of the youth who would hang out with us last year return plus some new kids.  Overall, things are a little less hectic.  Some of the troublemakers are maturing and all of the kids are able to play and work together better. Progress.  They are eager to work on their homework and then either work on bikes, play computer games, four square, or dodgeball.   Also, our discussions about God and life have matured a little too.  We were able to get some of our prehistoric computers upgraded and the kids like being able to play games and get their social media fix.

 

We are about to become empty-nesters this month (although we have thought this before just as one of the kids moved back home).  I think we are ready for this, but not sure.  It is great to see the kids get out on their own.  This also means that I can get back to finishing our house.  We have wanted to redo our bedroom and bath since we have moved in. 

We do, again, say thanks to all of you who love us, pray for us, and support our work to bring love and the gospel to our neighbors.  We are blessed to have you as friends and supporters. 

                                                   La Paz de Dios,

 Lee & Dana

You can now send support online: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000OCJD6EAP

Support gifts and donations should be made out to “National Christian Foundation” and are fully tax deductible. We receive 99% of the funds you donate. Please designate “Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502” on the memo line. Use the enclosed envelope or send to:

 Prescott Community Outreach Fund #935502

 c/o National Christian Foundation ,706 North Lindenwood Drive, Olathe, KS 66062